Sheffield has declared war on Himalayan Balsam, news which gets a mixed reception here at the Guardian Northerner because of romantic associations with the plant.

My parents did some of their courting among the great swags of pink and maroon flowers along the Leeds-Liverpool canal near Rodley and kept a lifelong love of popping the seeds – a fascinating method of distribution involving a small but powerful spring within the bud.

Triggered by the slightest pressure – so you can imagine the effect of courting – this catapults the plant's seeds for an impressive distance; and that is the problem in the eyes of Sheffield city council. Its rangers have recruited local people to join in what they call 'balsam bashing', uprooting the plant in areas where its clever take on Darwin's survival of the fittest is just too fit.

Urging Sheffielders to rise up and "help to rid local waterways of a foreign invader," the council says:

Himalayan Balsam was introduced to the UK for ornamental gardens, has spread into the wild and now smothers riverside habitats, harms native plants and leaves banks bare and subject to erosion when it dies down. It has to be pulled up before seed pods explode and spread along the rivers.

Sheffield's winter gardens. It's a great city for plants. Photograph: Alamy

Mobilising volunteers for six separate bashes last Sunday, Coun Isobel Bowler who is Sheffield's Labour cabinet member for culture, sport and leisure said:

Sheffield is blessed with some beautiful natural countryside but it does need some human intervention to keep it in a good state. Alien invasive species such as balsam are harmful to the natural ecology but labour intensive to remove. Time and effort given by local people working with our rangers to remove this plant is most welcome.

The alternation of wet and warm weather is encouraging everything to grow this year so we need help more than ever. But it also offers a great opportunity to get outside and get some fresh air and exercise.

Point taken; and much balsam was duly bashed along the Porter and Rivelin valleys, in Smelter wood and Periwood and beside Charlton brook. But I hope they leave some, for children of all ages to enjoy the popping. It's like squeezing a fuschia bud, but with added mini-artillery.

The plant will almost certainly stick around anyway, like those other victims of occasional surges of energy and bashing, ragwort (home of the lovely cinnabar moth) and Himalyan Knotweed. The balsam was first recorded in the UK in 1855, 34 years before Sheffield Corporation was given county borough status.